Olympic hockey gold medalist

Viktor Kuzkin, 67, a hockey player who was a three-time Olympic champion with the Soviet Union, died Tuesday of heart failure after a scuba diving accident at the Black Sea resort of Sochi in Russia, the International Ice Hockey Federation said.

Kuzkin won gold medals with the Soviet Union teams at three Winter Olympics from 1964 to 1972, and eight world championships.

The Moscow-born defenseman was captain of the Red Army team in the 1960s and ‘70s and played 169 times for the USSR, scoring 18 goals. After his 18-year playing career ended in 1976, Kuzkin retired and for the next 20 years was an assistant to longtime Soviet coach Viktor Tikhonov.

He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2005.